


The Universal Tour

by PaleEmeraldNebula



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 08:22:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2540921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaleEmeraldNebula/pseuds/PaleEmeraldNebula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the Metacrisis Doctor doesn't know how to fix a relationship issue without a Grand Gesture. And that's with two capital Gs!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Universal Tour

The Doctor glanced at Rose across the basement room as she pulled apart wire covers, barely paying him any attention, then went back to connecting the panels of a control board with his sonic. The only sounds in the room were of them working on their new TARDIS, getting the bits and pieces of the console room ready for when the ship grew enough for travel.

The silence between him and Rose, though, occupied his thoughts.

He could remember dozens of times in the past when Rose and him worked together, building some contraption or another to help save a planet or a race of aliens or sometimes the universe. Back then their chatter would fill the room, usually her voice and her smiles would lift his spirits, making the job easier and usually very fun.

Now they hardly spoke.

The Doctor wondered if the reason for her new demeanor was due to their time apart and her growing into a different woman. Perhaps working for Torchwood had hardened her, giving her a heavy heart and a silent, contemplative spirit. Other times he wondered if it was altogether something else.

In the weeks since Bad Wolf Bay, they would go on trips in one of the many Tyler cars available to them. They never traveled too far since they were both determined to get the new TARDIS up and running as fast as possible. And Rose did strike up a conversation on occasion. The topics were always light and airy, never of any significance, not like when they traveled the stars and spoke about the universe and themselves.

Their recent trip to Aberdeen had Rose even more unnaturally quiet.

He glanced at her again, swallowing and clearing his throat to sound as casual as possible. “Rose, are you alright?”

She looked up at him and smiled. The smile didn’t reach her eyes, something of a common occurrence nowadays. “Of course.”

He continued to work, setting down a panel, picking up another, though his mind barely registered what he was doing as his attention focused on his next words. “You sure about that?”

She shrugged, continuing with her work, yanking the next set of wires apart. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Sniffing, he thought back to this morning when he had walked into the kitchen on Rose and Jackie talking. They immediately stopped whatever conversation they were having and greeted him with tight smiles. “What were you talking about this morning with your mother?”

“Just stuff.” She didn’t even look his way as she spoke.

He decided to bite the proverbial bullet. He stopped working and gazed at Rose, silently pleading for her to look his way. “Rose, it’s me.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know? Then why have you been,” he thought of a dozen words in a dozen foreign languages, but none of them seemed to fit, “distant.” It was the best he could do.

She finally took notice of the fact he had stopped working and looked at him. Her hand stilled on the next batch of wires. “You think I’ve been distant?”

“You…you barely talk, not like before. You don’t smile, not really. What happened to you?”

She sprung to her feet, glaring at him, her hands balled into fists. “What happened to me?You’re seriously asking me that?”

He gaped at her flushed cheeks and wide eyes, confusion pulling his brows together at her sudden change in mood. He clenched his teeth together, frustration causing his single human heart to pound inside his chest. He stood and met her eyes. “Yes, obviously, that’s what I just asked! Honestly, I have no idea why you’re acting this way!”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned away from him. The moment he saw her back he stepped closer to her. He stopped himself from reaching out and waited until she turned around to face him. When she did, her lips were set in a frown and her eyes stayed to the ground. “I’ve had the man I love ditch me three times, sending me away for my own bleeding good! How am I suppose to act when I know it’ll just happen again?”

“Is that what you think? That’s why you haven’t…” He ran his hand through his hair to the back of his neck, rubbing his palm on his skin as he realized that Rose had been hurting far more than he could have ever guessed. “That’s…that’s…”

Rose waited silently as his mind fought for words. What could he say? What promises could he give that wouldn’t sound false?

Unable to think of what to say, he closed the distance between them and slipped his arms around her waist. He kissed her, hard and desperate, with every ounce of emotion that he felt for her. He hoped it would be enough. She kissed him back with equal vigour, the same cold desperation slipping through. Their second kiss felt like the first, impulsive and reckless. He could almost smell the salt from the sea.

When they broke apart her glossy eyes searched his. She blinked and her eyes were clear, her features set in professional detachment. He could only guess that she hadn’t found whatever it was that she had been searching for. He let her go and turned to the pile of wires and equipment littering the floor in front of the growing TARDIS coral. He put his hands in his pockets and tapped one of the panels with his foot.

“I can do the rest myself. Why don’t you go have a cuppa tea with your mother?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, her voice cracking on the word.

He didn’t watch her leave.

—oOo—

From that moment on the Doctor worked night and day on the new TARDIS, usually alone. Sometimes Rose would come and watch him, but he refused to be distracted. He wouldn’t torment her by demanding she put on an act for him. Besides Rose, there was no one he trusted with the TARDIS. He had to do this alone.

He could think of only one solution to their problem and it banked on getting the TARDIS ready for travel as fast as possible. He sacrificed sleep and food as often as he could. When he did eat, Rose would sit with him. When he slept, he’d wake to her bringing him tea. He hadn’t seen her smile, even her fake smiles, in weeks. That only made him work harder.

About three weeks after their second kiss, in the middle of one terrible wednesday night, where Rose had yelled at him during lunch that day, accusing him of working himself to death and that if he wanted to leave so badly he could take a car at anytime, a strange feeling came to him.

A thought sprung to his mind that if he just adjusted the manifold capacitor that regulated the shatterfry component by about three percent he could safely increase the growth rate by ten times the current speed. At her stage of growth, the TARDIS would be ready for console installation in only a few hours.

As he adjusted the manifold capacitor he belatedly registered that he just experienced his first wave of human instinct. He laughed and exclaimed a triumphant “Ha!” In his glee he thought of Rose and what she would say when he told her the news. His laughter grew silent when he remembered her words from lunch.

With determined concentration, he dived back into his work. And by early Thursday morning the TARDIS was ready.

Silently, he climbed two sets of stairs and walked through various hallways towards his destination. He quietly opened the door to Rose’s room, where she slept under a mound of pillows and blankets. He sat on the edge of her bed and shook her gently awake. “Rose.”

“Wha-?” she asked groggily. A second later, as her eyes fully opened and took him in, she bolted upright. “Is it time? Are you going?”

“We’re going. Come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of bed.

He hadn’t changed in days and she trailed behind him in her jim jams, her hair a sleep induced mess. He didn’t care though, because as long as it was them, together, it would be perfect. Unless she said no. Then it would be awkward.

The Doctor lead Rose to the newly ready TARDIS, didn’t let her pause to stare in awe at the ship, which he normally would have, to boost his ego. He ushered her inside and only let her hand go once the door slid closed. He skipped towards the console.

“Doct-”

He interrupted her, stalling until he was ready, as he yanked on the lever to send them flying. “I figured our first trip would be to the sixties, try out the chameleon circuit and then break it, for old times’ sake. But first there is something I want to show you!”

“Sure,” she replied, her voice unsure. He peeked and saw her fiddling with the hem of her shirt as she glanced around. The new TARDIS looked very similar to the old one, though the coloring was a bit different. White instead of yellow, indigo lights instead of turquoise, silver instead of bronze, glass floors instead of grating, and brand new grey leather for the jump seat and railing pads.

He glanced back to the screen and saw they were hovering at the correct coordinates. He hopped over to Rose, grabbing both of her hands and tugged her to the door. Her brows were knitted together, her face a prime example of perplextion, but it would only be a minute more. The door slid open to reveal the Earth, Pete’s World, as a tiny dot in space.

“Look Rose.”

She peered through the doors, but shook her head and glanced back at him. “What am I suppose to be seeing?”

He let one of her hands go and pointed to Pete’s World. “Earth. Just a tiny, little dot in the sky, barely noticeable.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, clearly exasperated. “O-kay? Why are we here then?”

He ignored the irritation in her voice. She would understand, hopefully, soon enough. “Because I wanted to tell you about planetary laws.”

“You woke me up at five in the morning to lecture me about laws on some other planets?”

“Yes, well, no. But there is something important I need to ask you and I want to make sure you understand what I’m asking.”

She let out an aggravated sigh. “It’s too early for this, but alright. Try me.”

“Remember Rose, time’s relative in the TARDIS.” He puffed up his chest as he took a deep breath. On exhale, he began. “On Earth, let’s say, if someone were to get married and then traveled to another planet, one not within the district of the Shadow Proclamation, that person would be deemed single as laws, traditions, and acts of binding do not carry over from planet to planet.”

His inadequate single heart began to beat rapidly and he swallowed down his anxiety. He pulled Rose closer to him and begged the universe that his voice would not shake as he continued. “But if that person got married on those planets as well, they could, hypothetically speaking, be married on over half the planets in the Universe, since of course, some laws do carry over on planets that have aligned with one another. So just getting married on Earth, while great if one was staying on the planet, doesn’t really have the significance it would for space travelers. Earth, as you can see, is just one tiny planet among billions and billions.”

Rose looked between him and the tiny Earth. She squinted, her eyes weary. “So what you’re saying is that, if a person strategically gets married on a certain set of planets, they could cover about half the universe?”

He beamed. “Yes exactly!”

She stared at Pete’s World, her features drawn together. “How many planets?”

“Oh, about seven hundred forty eight planets. If a couple got married once a day on a different planet, they could finish their little tour in a little over two Earth years.”

“What about the whole universe?” she asked slowly, meeting his eyes.

He tilted his head back to think. “About, er, roughly one thousand and eighty nine planets. One ceremony a day would take oh, little under three Earth years to finish them all.” He glanced back down to Rose, watching her reaction.

Rose stared, her mouth slightly hanging open. She trembled then lifted her brows once and ducked her head in a single nod. “That’s some dedication, to go through all that for one person.” The words came out with punctuated carefulness. He breathed deeply, nodding slightly as he understood that she had gotten what he was really saying, or, really, asking.

“Yes, it is,” he said, taking her other hand in his again.

She caught his gaze and her eyes searched his face. This time he held his breath. Her hands squeezed his and she closed her eyes. Her lips parted ever so slightly. “Yeah, but if that person’s got a time ship, then he’d only be married in that time frame, he’d still have the future or the past to run off to.”

“It would be hard to avoid that time frame, especially if he was fond of it.”

“Not if he had a short, human life.”

“Even more reason not to limit oneself.”

She shook her head and sighed, defeated. “Doctor, you don’t have to do this.”

“I know.” He looked away, staring out into star filled vastness of the universe. When he looked back at her he leaned forward so their foreheads almost touched. “Not something I’d normally do, but I would if it, even in the slightest bit, made you happy. So you’d know I’m not going to leave you again. Like the Earth ceremony says, ‘till death do us part’.” His voice sped up as he finished the rest. “Also, on about a third of those planets divorce or abandonment of a spouse is considered a criminal offense. Punishable by death. Usually. And! And you’re practically royalty in Britain. I read in one of those funny papers that the Tyler family were becoming Britain’s new royal family. If I spurned you the whole country would be out to kill me.”

For first time since they towed the Earth back home in another universe, Rose smiled, a genuine, real smile. She tried to hide it by looking at her feet, but he had seen it.

Boosted by the smile, softly he asked. “So, Rose Tyler, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

She raised her head to meet his eyes. Her lips no longer curved up, but set firmly in a line. She shook her head again. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do. Are you sure, absolutely sure, that us taking two or three years to officially get married, legally in the eyes of the entire universe, wouldn’t make you a tiny bit happy. Or relieved to know I’m not going anywhere?”

She pursued her lips together and looked down at their joined hands. Her fingers twitched. She adjusted her grip as her skin grew hot against his. Finally her fingers stopped moving. “I suppose it could be fun. Might get a laugh out of it,” she said, shrugging, her eyes trained on their hands. A second passed and her demeanor broke. She swung their arms and glanced at him through her eyelashes, another smile peeking out behind pressed lips. “Think I’d like to burn a few years traveling with you again, getting married on all those planets. Trouble’s just waiting for us to make a move, so it’s probably best we do.”

“With us as the bride and groom, you’ll never know who or what will show up at our wedding. Er, weddings I should say.” He released her hands and moved his to her waist. Her whole body shivered. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, but he held back, not yet sure of her answer.

She suddenly tutted and smirked, regarding him with mischief in her eyes. “You just want to do this so you’d get a honeymoon everyday.”

That thought had never occurred to him. Not that he hadn’t thought about sex, or specifically, sex with Rose Tyler. He had been far too concerned with reassuring Rose that he didn’t think about the perks of his idea. His eyes widened and his brows rose high as he imagined it. Then he grinned and waggled his brows. “Now that is another reason why we should.”

She laughed and everything stopped for the Doctor. There was only Rose and her laughter, for one moment in time.

With all the seriousness he could muster, he asked again. “So will you?”

Her smile vanished and she studied his face for a second time. If she changed her mind now, he didn’t know what else he could do to solve their problem. He supposed only time would have, but nothing is ever certain with time.

The Doctor hoped they could go forward, no matter the risk. He’d been ready the moment he spoke those three words on that beach. But he hadn’t realized what his other self had done to Rose could affect their current relationship. To him, Rose had gotten the better deal, the person she loved who could grow old with her. Only recently he knew better and understood that it was fear holding her back. He never wanted to be the source of Rose Tyler’s fear.

After a few moments Rose slid her arms around his neck. “Yes,” she whispered. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t look away. He pressed her closer, his hands on her back. Perhaps she was no longer afraid or perhaps she had found something in his expression, whatever the reason she had agreed, he knew that he wanted to start it off right.

He kissed her, gentle and deliberate. She kissed him back leisurely, moving her lips with his. There was no desperation behind it, just a tender bridge to passion and anticipation.

With regret he broke the kiss to close the door to space and then led her back to the console. Before he could set the coordinates to their next destination, Rose stroked his arm, nabbing his attention.

She peered up at at him with somber eyes and her chin tucked close to her chest. “Just, this isn’t going to fix everything. I want you to know that.”

His racing heart dropped to his stomach. “Then, then why did you agree?”

“”Cause I know what you’re trying to do. It doesn’t make it alright, but it means a lot that you’re trying. And…”

He raised an eyebrow, gripping the time stabilizer to keep from shaking. “And?”

“And I do think it’ll be fun. Traveling, learning about other cultures, and sharing that with someone you love.” She smiled and rested a hand on his chest. The warmth of her touch spread through him and he returned her smile.

“I suppose it will be.” He focused on the controls, letting her words sink in. Her hand dropped from his chest and he quickly set himself in motion around the console. “Fun, that is. On Belrand V they have a ceremony that involves a game of hide and seek. Well, not exactly, but close enough to hide and seek. The bride has to hide in a maze and the groom must find her within a certain amount of time or the wedding is deemed unlucky and won’t take place. Though we can skip that one and do the Northern ceremony, which is all rather boring.”

Rose chuckled. “Don’t forget the food, weddings usually have really great food.” She stayed close to him as he twirled and cranked the buttons and gears that flew the TARDIS. Her voice sounded light and hopeful.

He pulled the lever to enter the Time Vortex and beamed at her. “Oh, yes! I forgot about that. On Trimonia the wedding ceremony is based entirely around food!”

“Do I even want to know what the rest will be like?”

The Doctor preened. “We’re getting married! Which one first? Earth? Western style? Or did you want to try another custom? Indian? Japanese? Jamacian?”

“Mom’s gonna flip her top when she hears about this!”

He scrunched up his nose. “Can you not mention your mother right now?”

“Yeah, well, keep that up and there will be no practice for the honeymoon.”

“Practice?” He furrowed his brows, bewildered at the thought. “Why would we need to practice for that? It’s the wedding ceremony…” With a pointed look from Rose, realization dawned. “Ooooh. Yes, that practice. We should definitely practice. When can we start? Great way for us to reconnect. Or should I say connect, really, I’m not picky.”

Rose’s shoulders shook with silent giggles before she broke out in a yawn. “I’ll let you know. But first I’m going back to bed. Hope the TARDIS is grown enough for a bedroom.” Walking towards the other end of the console room, she pointed a finger at him. “Then once I’m properly awake we can discuss the Earth wedding.”

His grin spread from cheek to cheek and he ran up to Rose, wrapping his arms around her hips and lifted her up from the floor. She let out a laugh as he twirled her around, keeping their balance only just, and then set her back down again. “Shall I join you?” He let her go and quickly amended, “For sleep. Think I need it, what with all the work I did to get the TARDIS ready.”

Her features softened and she reached up to give him a quick kiss. “Yeah, I could do with a snuggle buddy.”

“And I am a very good snuggler.”

“Prove it then,” she challenged as she disappeared behind the door.

With a contented smile and hum, the Doctor followed Rose further into the TARDIS, ready to begin a brand new adventure.


End file.
